College Recovery Communities

A Comparison of Rutgers University & Texas Tech’s
College Recovery Communities

Texas Tech University (TTU) is unique in that they provide at least one of the many types of recovery support group meetings now available, seven days a week.

Texas Tech Tulips

Having access to support group meetings daily, gives college students in recovery from substance abuse, addiction or alcoholism, a sense of security by providing a safety net available whenever they need it. An evidence of the success of this support is the fact that students in the College Recovery Community (CRC) have a graduation rate of 70% and a small relapse rate of only 8%. Their CRC has been successful at providing the proper environment that leads to success for most of their recovery students.

Academic Success for Recovery Students

Both TTU and Rutgers proudly boast that their recovery students have above a 3.0 GPA on average.

How it works

TTU’s CRC requires six months of sobriety for most recovery students. However, they do make exceptions depending on the circumstances. This practice may be contributing to the success rate as well as the higher GPAs, which are above the average GPAs for non-recovery students. The six-month sobriety requirement has proved to be a valuable deterrent to college dropouts, collegiate apathy, and continuing sobriety. A similar requirement should be implemented in all college recovery communities to help facilitate the success of these programs.

The rules are necessary in most cases, but having the flexibility to make exceptions for a few students shows their commitment to doing what is necessary for each individual. Even though they are in recovery, they each have different issues that need to be addressed.

There are no absolute truths or rules that can be applied to every college student in recovery. Acknowledging this truth, while seeking ways to accommodate these differences, is an impressive feature of TTU’s college recovery community.

Providing an altruistic project for recovering students is an excellent method of pulling them out of their formerly egoistic behavior, where their main focus was to satisfy their own wants and needs. Working with their fellow recovering peers can build important bonds and allow them to think of the needs of others in the midst of dealing with their own issues.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Borchard, 2011).

According to Borchard (2011), not only should people be involved in volunteering, but afterwards they should also participate in a follow-up survey asking questions about how the recovery student felt as a volunteer. This would help assess which students would benefit from further volunteer projects as part of their treatment and as a requirement of their time in the CRC.

This acknowledgement, again, shows the commitment and dedication of those affiliated with Rutgers’ CRC. Counselors need to be aware of their own potential stressors while dealing with college students in recovery. Having the option to take concerns to a director or the administrative board relieves the counselors of undue responsibilities in the face of new and unique problems they may encounter.

Proper administrative support can pave the way for a healthier program for counselors, students, and faculty. Supervision is important in any profession, as everyone performs better when held accountable for their actions.

Counselors also need ongoing education as new techniques are still in development for college recovery communities.

Obstacles for students in recovery

Another impediment facing recovery students, acknowledged by Rutgers, is that our culture, generally speaking, expects everyone to be able to handle having one or two drinks and nothing more. This is simply not possible for an addictive personality that has experienced addiction.

Most people who have no experience with addictions tend to be inconvenienced by the prospect of having a person in recovery attempting to enter their social network. This reaction can cause the person in recovery to feel even more self-conscious and burdensome than they already do.

Some of these students have been abandoned by, or have experienced constant criticism from their families. Empathetic counselors can help the students learn to deal with this type of humiliation by understanding that the people who feel this way are probably dealing with their own issues and feel they do not have time for someone else’s problems.